The 28-year-old ex-US Open winner, who is top seeded at the ATP Challenger in Spain, lost 3: 6.4: 6 to Argentinian Pedro Cachin, who was only 228th. Thiem obviously lacks match practice and yet there is reason for confidence, because trust in his wrist is back.
Thiem showed punches like in the old days, pulled them through, but he lacked consistency. The Marbella trip is over for him earlier than planned. His next tournament appearance should be back on the ATP Tour next week, at the ATP 250 tournament in Marrakech.
Thiem showed at the third point in the first game that he had confidence in his shots again. At 15:30 when Cachin served, he already used his parade shot, the cracking one-handed backhand along the line. But at the beginning Thiem was unable to use two break chances in either the first or third game, while he gave up his first service game with a double fault. The Argentinian, seen on paper as an outsider, quickly led 3-0.
As a result, Thiem initially made too many mistakes against number 228 in the ATP rankings. Of course, as expected, the four-time major finalist lacked match practice after his more than nine-month injury break. It was only after 30 minutes and when the score was 0: 5 that Lichtenwörther managed to win the first game and this flipped a switch at Thiem: This was followed by the first rebreak to zero, a service game to zero and at 3: 5 Thiem had two chances on the second break to 4:5. Thiem couldn’t use it and Cachin immediately converted his first set ball 6: 3 after around 40 minutes.
However, Thiem was unable to take the momentum from the end of the first round with him. He had to give up his serve to 0.1 with the South American’s first break chance. An early break he couldn’t make up for. In front of the eyes of his box with coach Nicolas Massu, Physio Carlos Costa, fitness coach Jez Green and manager Galo Blanco as well as his mother Karin Thiem, the 17-time ATP tournament winner had to congratulate him on his victory without winning a set.
Another tennis star had already made his comeback after a break of more than a year, but the three-time major winner Stan Wawrinka also got off to a false start in terms of the result. The Swiss, who has been 37 since Monday, lost 2:6.4:6 to Swede Elias Ymer. Wawrinka had also trained with Thiem in preparation and had slight advantages in a match.
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Source: Nachrichten
